Every body who travels by air knows that the car parking charges in Delhi and Mumbai are much higher than that is charged by the Kolkata and Chennai Airports. All are metros. Of course, there may be slight variations in the number of flights to and fro from these airports.
While Delhi Airport levies parking charges between Rs. 100 and Rs.1,000 for duration of 30 minutes to 24 hours, Mumbai charges about Rs. 70 to Rs.900 for the same.
At Kolkata and Chennai airports, the charges for parking are only Rs. 60 for a duration up to 4 hours.
Why this drastic difference? The answer is that Mumbai and Delhi are run by private companies, while Chennai and Kolkata are run by a PSU, Airport Authority of India. Before handing over Mumbai and Delhi Airports to private, the parking charges in these airports were also far less than the present.
Now Government of India is planning to privatize 8 airports including Chennai and Kolkata. What will happen is known to every body. Not only car parking charges, but even tea and coffee in the airport will be charged more than double. This is privatization.
Despite the opposition of the airport employees and the unanimous report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transports headed by Com. Sitaram Yechury M.P.,against privatization of airports, the Civil Aviation Ministry is moving fast to sell the same to private companies for their maximum private profitization.
There should be strong protest against these anti-people measures.